Couple Calls Historic Mansion Home

Jack and Billie Annas have more than just a 21-room, five-level mansion on their hands.

Their spacious home at 204 Bank St. was registered this past year as an historic site on the Virginia Landmarks Register and the National Register of Historic Places.

The house is one of 145 residential properties in Suffolk's Historic District near Main Street that made the lists, but it's probably one of the more immaculate in the area.

Construction of the 80-year-old mansion began in 1908 and was completed in 1909, says Billie. She and her husband became the mansion's fourth owners about 11 years ago when Billie's mother, Janice Crumpler, gave them the house.

The home was built and occupied by lumber magnate George W. Truitt, who Billie says was one of the first millionaires of Suffolk. The value of the house in 1909 was about $135,000, which made it the most expensive house in Suffolk at the time, she says.

Billie says Truitt had planned to build the mansion for some time.

"It took Mr. Truitt 20 years to find and season the lumber to put into the home," she says. "He purchased the lot in 1905 for $9,000."

The Truitt family occupied the house for about 30 years before it was sold to George Frazier, who made his fortune in the canning industry, says Jack, who owns Annas Realty in Suffolk.

The Fraziers, who were friends of Billie's family, the Crumplers of Suffolk, put the house up for sale in the late '50s. Billie's father, William M. Crumpler Jr., who lived across the street from the mansion, jumped on the opportunity to buy the house in 1958.

The Crumplers had long admired the home. For years, Billie's mother chose to take pictures in front of the immaculate mansion instead of her own home, her daughter recalls. Crumpler, who today lives in Virginia Beach, often visits and stays in a room reserved for her in the home.

Gracing the front of the solidly built mansion are six immense columns and a double-doored entrance. The house's brick walls are 18 inches thick. A small brick wall surrounds the mansion and its well-kept lawn. A carriage house graces the backyard but no longer shelters horses.

The sight understandably generates a lot of curiosity in passers-by.

"We've had people just call us up and want to see the house," says Jack. "People who have lived in Suffolk all their lives call and say they just want to see the inside."

Throughout the years, they have opened their mansion's doors to friends and the public, giving Christmas and historic tours plus elaborate parties in support of state and local politicians.

They've also had Super Bowl parties with as many as 70 guests.

"So many people say I live in a showplace," says Billie. "It is, but it's a home first. We entertain for others to enjoy it as much as we do."

The interior of the mansion is as impressive as its exterior. Antique furnishings and Oriental rugs deck the roomy foyer with its three-story spiralling staircase. At the top of the stairs is a large ballroom and on the first floor is a spacious dining room - the ceiling alone is 14 feet high - with 18th century chairs and a crystal chandelier. An attractive marble fireplace on one end of the room would easily draw eyes away from dinner plates.

The home has nine fireplaces, four of which are marble. A small music room upstairs provides a place in which the Annas' grandchildren can entertain themselves.

"We're hoping one of the children will have an interest in the home," says Billie, who has three grown children, one living in one of the seven other homes the family owns near the mansion. "If not . . . well . . . it will be a very sad day."